Pittsburgh police charge 3 protesters for harassing Downtown diners during 'Civil Saturday'

Three Pittsburgh protesters have been charged by police for a pattern of disorderly conduct Sept. 5 that started at the McDonald’s on Liberty Avenue and continued to an area outside Sienna Mercato on Penn Avenue.

Parts of the protest were captured on video that went viral on social media nationwide, and caught the attention and condemnation of President Donald Trump. It was denounced by city officials, who said they would identify and charge the people involved.

On Monday, police filed charges against Kenneth McDowell, 33, also known as Kenny West; Shawn Green, 24, also known as Lorenzo Rulli; and Monique Craft, 35, also known as Nique Craft. They were identified by Damage Assessment and Accountability Taskforce Det. Brett Butkewich, who reviewed the videos and spoke with witnesses.

“This group … were working together as an unwelcome and hostile subset of what was intended to be a peaceful protest,” Butkewich wrote in the criminal complaints charging the trio.

They entered businesses and trespassed on private property “with the intent to create a hazardous and physically offensive condition to employees and patrons of these businesses,” Butkewich wrote.

McDowell was identified as the man using a megaphone in the videos. He appeared to single out female patrons who were dining outside at Sienna Mercato, swearing and insulting them, Butkewich wrote. McDowell was charged with possessing instruments of crime (the megaphone), disorderly conduct, harassment and conspiracy.

“It should be noted that the patrons did not appear to be engaging back and forth with the protesters,” Butkewich wrote.

Green was also identified in the videos, swearing and making obscene gestures at patrons, Butkewich wrote. Green also pounded a table at the restaurant, causing it to fall and shatter, Butkewich wrote. Green was charged with criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, trespassing and conspiracy.

Craft was identified as the person who approached a couple who were sitting at a table and chugged a beer that was on it, something Craft told television news reporters she did and posted about on her Facebook page, according to Butkewich. Craft was charged with theft, trespassing and conspiracy.

McDowell, Green and Craft didn’t immediately respond to messages for comment. They did not have attorneys listed in court dockets.

Before the charges were filed, Craft told the Tribune-Review that cyclists who rode through the protest used racist rhetoric that inflamed the situation, but the police investigation produced a different narrative.

“They harassed bicyclists to the point that the bicyclists had to defend themselves,” Butkewich wrote in the complaints.

The actions of the protesters were called an “an isolated incident” by Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership President Jeremy Waldrup.

“We welcome protests, and we understand the needs for folks to get out during these times and demand change,” he said on Sept. 9, while adding the public conflicts Saturday were “not indicative of what’s happened in the city this summer.”

The protest was part of 16 weeks of demonstrations that were billed as “Civil Saturdays.”

The last protest, held Saturday, ended peacefully with a call to further action as part of the broader Black Lives Matter movement.